Terrible Tsarinas

gave him, Peter — with the approval of Elizabeth — named him

chamberlain and awarded him the Order of St. Catherine, which

was reserved, theoretically, for ladies.

< 41 >

Terrible Tsarinas

The people at court were outraged and the foreign diplomats

were quick to comment, in their dispatches, on His Majesty’s

two-way escapades. They were already prepared to bury His

Most Serene. Little did they suspect how great was Menshikov’s

physical resistance. Suddenly, he popped up again in the midst of

this circus of ambitious and sexual maneuvering. Did he think he

could just raise his voice, and the troublemakers would run for

shelter? Hardly. By now, Peter II had gotten the upper hand. He

would no longer tolerate anyone, including his future father-in-

law, thwarting his desires. In front of Menshikov — stunned and

close to apoplexy — he howled, “I will show you who is master,

here!”5

This outburst reminded Menshikov of the terrible rages of

his former master, Peter the Great. Understanding that it would

be imprudent to defy a lamb that had gone mad, he pretended to

see this fury as nothing but a late childish tantrum, and departed

Peterhof, where Peter had received him so badly, to convalesce at

his property at Oranienbaum. Before leaving, he took care to in-

vite all the assembled company to a reception that he was plan-

ning to host in his country residence in honor of the tsar and to

celebrate his own recovery. But Peter II persisted and, under the

pretext that His Most Serene did not invite Elizabeth by name,

refused to attend. To underscore his displeasure, he openly went

out with his aunt to hunt big game in the surroundings.

Throughout this semi-hunting, semi-romantic escapade, he

wondered what was going on at the celebrations dreamed up by

Menshikov. Wasn’t it strange that none of his friends had fol-

lowed his example? Was their fear of displeasing Menshikov so

strong that they preferred to displease the tsar? In any case, he

didn’t worry much about the feelings of Maria Menshikov, who

seemed to have gone from intended-bride to back-on-the-shelf.

On the contrary, as soon as Menshikov’s guests were back from

< 42 >

Machinations around the Throne

Oranienbaum, he questioned them avidly on how the Serene One

had seemed during the festivities. Pressed to speak their minds,

they told him everything, in detail. They insisted, in particular, on

the fact that Menshikov had pushed his insolence to the point of

sitting, in their presence, on the throne prepared for Peter II. To

hear them tell it, their host, consumed with pride, conducted him-

self in every way as though he were the master of the empire. Os-

termann declared that he was offended as much as if it had been

him that the Serene One had slighted. The next day, taking ad-

vantage of an absence of Peter II, who had gone out hunting with

Elizabeth, Ostermann received Menshikov at Peterhof and re-

proached him, in a dry tone, in the name of all the sincere friends

of the imperial family, for his unseemly conduct towards His Maj-

esty. Piqued by these remonstrances from a subordinate, Menshi-

kov took umbrage and returned to St. Petersburg, contemplating a

revenge that would forever remove the desire to plot against him

from this scheming band.

Arriving at his palace on Vasilievsky Island, he was stunned

to see that all of Peter II’s furniture had been removed and trans-

ported to the Summer Palace (Peterhof) where the tsar, he was

informed, intended to reside from now on. Outraged, the Most

Serene Prince rushed to the headquarters of the Guard to demand

an explanation from the officers charged with keeping watch over

the tsar. All the sentinels had already been relieved and the sta-

tion chief announced, with an air of contrition, that he was only

following imperial orders. Apparently, there was another hand

pulling the strings. What might have looked, at first, like the

whim of a prince seemed, in fact, to signal a final breakdown. For

Menshikov, this was the collapse of an edifice that he had been

building for years and that he had believed to be as solid as the

granite of the quays along the Neva.

What a catastrophe! Who was behind it? There could be no

< 43 >

Terrible Tsarinas

doubt. Alexis Dolgoruky and his son, the ravishing and under-

handed Ivan, must have masterminded it all. How could Menshi-

kov save whatever might still be salvageable? Should he beg for

leniency from those who had cut him down, or turn to Peter and

try to plead his cause directly? Even as he pondered these unpal-

atable options, he heard that the tsar, having joined his aunt

Elizabeth at the Summer Palace, had convened the members of

the Supreme Privy Council and that he was discussing with them

what additional sanctions should be taken. The verdict came

down before the defendant could even prepare his defense. Most

probably egged on by Elizabeth, Natalya and the Dolgoruky clan,

Peter ordered the Serene One arrested. When Major General

Simon Saltykov came to inform him of his condemnation, Menshi-